The Chesterfield football history resource

Two-footed and resourceful, Jim Smallwood's consistency shone like a
beacon through the gloom of the club's gradual decline in the late
'fifties. A face worker at his local
colliery, Jim was one of many Harry Dormand discoveries and signed from
Spennymoor United for £1,000 as a semi-pro in October '49 before stepping up to
the full professional ranks two months later.
He intended to give it a year at Chesterfield, to see how he got on: his
association with the club came to last forty times as long! He made his debut against Sheffield Wednesday
on New Year's Eve, 1949, and won instant respect by finishing the game with
five stitches in a head wound, coming back on to play after The Spireites had
been reduced to nine men through injury.

Jim was equally good in either wing-half position and played
occasionally at centre-forward, whenever the team found goals hard to come by.
Some of his forays up front were quite memorable, none more so that in a League
Cup tie at Doncaster: with Chesterfield 1-3 down, Jim scored twice with his
head in the last eight minutes to earn a replay. As his first-team career began
to close, his experience was used to good effect among the reserves, and many
junior players looked up to him; the young John Osborne rated him as "The
type that the ordinary bloke in the crowd could associate with, never giving
less than 100% every week and proud to be playing for Chesterfield."

Jim's playing career came to an end in the summer of
1961. He joined the groundstaff and
served as the matchday trainer to the reserves, before stepping up to become
first-team trainer the following summer.
In November 1967 he became the club's groundsman, continuing in that job
until 1986, and combining it with the position of Saltergate Club steward
during the mid-1980s, during which time he became instrumental in the
reformation of the Supporters' Club. A
back injury eventually forced his retirement, but he continued to live locally
and took a keen interest in Chesterfield's fortunes until his death at the age
of 84, in January 2010.